The NCAA stated this week, in response to the controversial finish of the Western Michigan-Michigan game on Saturday, Sept. 5, that it has no protocol to reverse the outcome of football games. Additionally, the Division I FBS Oversight Committee has no authority to reverse the outcome of games.
Sadly, the NCAA admitted that it is powerless to overturn an egregious “mistake” by game officials for not observing “the TV program feed clock.” If they did, the game would have been over, and the Broncos would have defeated the Wolverines for the first time in school history. Instead, Big Ten replay officials awarded Michigan a mulligan, and quarterback Bryce Underwood’s second Hail Mary was caught and counted as a touchdown.
To his credit, WMU head coach Lance Taylor said, per ESPN, “We’ll be better and stronger because of it and we’ve turned the page.”
The Broncos play Monmouth in their home opener on Saturday. Michigan, which fell 12 spots and out of the weekly AP Top 25 poll, hosts No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday at 12 p.m. on FOX.
That’s great, Coach Taylor. But your team was shafted, and nobody is doing a thing to rectify it, to correct it. The NCAA thinks it did something. The collegiate sports ruling body issued guidance on Monday “to establish a standard timing protocol that ensures consistency in the administration of college football games,” following Michigan’s “win” over Western Michigan. If anything, the victory should include an asterisk with the explanation about the ending.
The guidance the NCAA is offering should have been established decades ago. It shows just how inept the organization is when it comes to recognizing a scandal on the football field and brushing it off as old news and saying “the official time for all college football games is the time displayed on the in-stadium game clock.” This is what grown men without morals respond. They send forth their messengers with updated guidance on how to respond to on-field corruption.
Why don’t you feed them grapes, too? Let them grab the skin off the chicken and lick the grease off their hands. After all, the NCAA is an empire, and they do not take kindly to peasants who have been wronged and demand justice. It’s a way of saying, “You lost. There might have been mistakes. Get over it. And, the next time this happens with another interpretation of the guidance, another edict will be declared to address the new controversy.”
In reality, a reversal of fortunes for the Mid-American Conference Broncos won’t happen. Not when the opponent is mighty Michigan, which played like a Division III team (that’s not an insult to Division III) and deserved to lose. Time will tell what direction each team takes for the rest of the season. There are, after all, 11 more games to play – a lot of football.
The latest move by the NCAA should include a retroactive clause, which would indeed reverse the outcome of the WMU-Michigan game.
Does it make you wonder if the decision of the Big Ten replay officials was remorse for the Clockgate game between Michigan and Michigan State in 2001? I call both incidents examples of gross misconduct. In the case of the Clockgate game, the stadium clock showed one second remaining as the Spartans lined up to spike the ball. Michigan coaches, players, and the ABC broadcasters argued (per Wikipedia’s account) that the clock should have run out of time on the play.
Upon seeing the replay, it indeed appeared the clock should have shown 0:00. ABC color analyst Gary Danielson said, “It’s nice to have that home clock. It’s nice to have that home field advantage.” On the ensuing play, Spartans quarterback Jeff Smoker (who attended Manheim Central High School) lobbed a pass off his back foot that somehow went high enough to avoid leaping Michigan defenders and into the awaiting arms of TJ Duckett in the end zone to give Michigan State a controversial 26-24 victory.
In 1990, Colorado defeated Missouri in what became known as the Fifth Down Game. The Buffaloes, who went on to share the national championship with Georgia Tech, were driving late in the game. On first down, backup quarterback Charles Johnson spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down, Eric Bieniemy was stopped short of the goal line. Colorado called its final time out. However, during the timeout, the chain crew did not flip the down marker to indicate it was third down.
On the next play, with the down marker showing second down, Bieniemy was again tackled before he could cross the goal line. Johnson spiked the ball thinking it was third down when it was fourth down. On the following play, Johnson scored the game-winning touchdown.
It took close to 20 minutes for referee J.C. Loudermilk to decide the course of action. Loudermilk had earlier talked to Colorado head coach Bill McCartney about the situation with the downs. The officiating crew had realized their mistake. After a lengthy consultation, the officials announced that the touchdown counted, giving Colorado a 33-31 lead. Johnson took the snap on the extra point and took a knee, allowing the Buffaloes to go back to Boulder, Colorado with a controversial win.
The officiating crew received a brief suspension but no reversal in the outcome of the game. What a pity. McCartney deflected attention away from the fifth down controversy by criticizing the playability of the field. The NCAA? Dave Nelson, rules book secretary and editor, said, “There are two rules that cover that. The team with the greater number of points at the conclusion of the game is a winner. And the game is over when the officials say it’s over.”
If it makes you feel better that other teams have had to deal with terrible outcomes, it shouldn’t. And if Michigan fans feel vindicated because the Wolverines were robbed in 2001, they shouldn’t. If the NCAA had any convictions about integrity and fair play, they would have overturned the outcome of the Colorado-Missouri game AND the Western Michigan-Michigan game.
The fact is, it won’t be the last time something like this happens. As long as human nature remains what it is, and the associations exist between various entities (the NCAA, the conferences, the individual universities and colleges, and, of course, the prediction markets), time will show that the barbarians have already breached the gates of the civilized world.
And, knowing this, it’s also time for people to recognize the polarizing shift that has taken place and decide if it’s really worth devoting time, money, emotions and dedication to their teams and their sports.
The clock is ticking.
